SALT LAKE CITY — This season, the Utah Jazz (14-11) have struggled to play consistently good basketball. After starting the 2019-20 campaign on a mostly positive note during the first several weeks, the past three weeks have been a distinct contrast in quality of play, resulting in a 4-6 record during that stretch.
Both players and coaches have had trouble putting their finger on the root cause of the problem, but a couple veterans on the squad believe learning to have more trust and confidence in each other on the court — something that has been difficult given the team’s challenging early-season schedule — could help matters.
“Well, it comes with time. I think that’s the main thing,” said forward Jeff Green, speaking Friday after the team’s shootaround. “Nowadays, (you have) short training camp and when these games start to run behind each other, practices are limited. Games become almost a simulation of practice, pretty much. That’s been in the first month and a half of the season. We haven’t had much time to practice.”
Green noted that scrimmages are typically the place where players learn each other’s habits and preferences on the court, but having so many new players, learning new schemes and getting accustomed to each other all at the same time has hindered that acclimation process.
“We have to use the games to try to build that trust,” he said. “We see glimpses of what we can become, but it hasn’t been an every-game thing. I think we can just continue to just learn from those games that we’ve lost. We’ve seen the impact of not trusting (each other) and we just have to continue to build on the trust factor. That’s it.”
Center Rudy Gobert concurred, noting that belief in and faith between teammates are among the key elements to success on the floor. With trust comes synergy, he said, but without that confidence comes inconsistency and sometimes disjointed play on the court.
“It’s a team game and in order to win — you cannot win by yourself — you’ve got to be connected with your teammates. You’ve got to trust your teammates and your teammates have got to trust you,” Gobert said. “It’s on both ends and when you do that, I think you put yourself in a much better position to be successful. It’s also more fun to play as a unit.”